Wednesday, April 30, 2014

On this here blog, I thought it was just me rambling and sending stuff out there, mostly to keep myself accountable. I haven't commented on any other blogs with a link to this one because I'm scared shitless that they won't like me.

Then I saw this:

So... people are actually reading this blog? Or are those just some automatic internet search robots looking for places to spam?

If you are an actual person reading this, please comment! How/why did you come here? Share your story! Kthxbai.

70.9kg. Wow! I did not see that coming. Certainly because I ate spaghetti leftovers yesterday. It was a small portion and I didn't put any cheese on it, but afterwards I did feel a bit bloated and was worried I would weigh in 1kg heavier. Apparently it went in the other direction. Yay! Moving right along.

I would like to talk about lemon water right now, if I may. I've always been great with my water intake; drinking at least a glass of water first thing in the morning has been a habit of mine for the past few years and the rest of the day I spend sipping water constantly. I read somewhere online that lemon supposedly speeds up weight loss, so I decided to add it to my new routine along with calorie restriction. First thing in the morning I drink half a liter of water with some freshly squeezed lemon juice in it. I figured "Eh, if it's a myth at least I'm getting some vitamin C first thing in the morning. Can't be a bad thing."

Well, yesterday evening I started reading about in on line and apparently there's a whole story about drinking lemon water first thing in the morning. Just google "drinking lemon water" and you'll find a shitload of websites that praise this habit. They do talk mostly about drinking warm lemon water, but I'll bet a lot of the advantages are true for the cold(er) variant as well.

I am always skeptical of things that are praised into the high heavens, so I also googled "drinking lemon water myth". Interesting stuff too. This blog post gives some interesting critiques. Fortunately many of the hits I got there still claim it is a good idea to drink lemon water anyway.

I don't know if it's actually helping my weight loss or that it's merely a placebo thing or all in my head. Truth is that I am losing weight at a nice rate. I'm also starting to enjoy the taste of this lemon water. Our bodies are designed to enjoy a whole range of tastes. It seems most of us go for the sugary or fatty stuff. If you give other things a try though you might find your world is much broader than sugar alone.

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Weigh-in update: 71.9. Woot! Diet wise, I had an excellent day yesterday. A bit low on the calorie intake I suppose, but I never felt hungry. The bloating probably masked it a bit. I drank a LOT of water, which probably solved that problem mostly. I also had an excellent evening run: 8.3km! I did it in a great time too, almost matching the time I clocked at my 8K race in December. The only thing that's missing is a good number two on the toilet, but I'm sure that 'll be here soon. I'm seriously feeling so much better this morning. I will not be scoffing down large quantities of food late in the evening. Hell no.

I've been wondering why this has been working so well for me this time around. Since having my son I've started dieting so many times I've lost count. Then clear out of the blue I decided enough was enough and got serious about it. I've even kept it up for three weeks now! What made the difference this time around?

What's Working for Me, Now

We've all had at least one friend who used some amazing weight loss technique and lost a bunch of weight. Shakes, WW, prepackaged meals and so on. And then we think "Oh my that's great! I have to try that!"

The thing is, we are all so different! We have different lifestyles, different bodies, different exercise routines, different family and social lives. While I do think the simple basic equation is calories in vs calories out, the way to achieve that is not so simple at all. We need a hook, a method, something to hang onto. What method will work for you depends so heavily on the factors above, there is no one solution for all.

When I read about the newest diets I often shake my head: Cutting out carbs alltogether for instance, what is that about? I love my carbs! I also need them in order to do a longer run (see above). Since Engineer Daddy is the chef of the house and he would never agree to cut out anything alltogether, it wouldn't work for me anyways. I don't want to start cooking separate meals for myself. Furthermore his cooking is delicious, so that wouldn't last long anyway.

I can shake my head all I want though, if it works for other people, that's awesome! More power to them. Clearly there must be something to it.

Timing is also important. Several years ago I did WW to lose a nice amount of weight (8kg). I was also pretty good about keeping it off until I got knocked up.While it worked beautifully back then, that doesn't necessarily mean it will work now. It was like 10 years ago. I'm older now and my lifestyle is so different. I got bored of the WW thing, clearly I needed to shake things up. Mission accomplished.

Cutting Myself Some Slack

During my previous attempts, there would (obviously) be bad days. When they happened, I would always feel tremendously guilty and think "Well I screwed it up anyway, I'm a fat pig and can just as well eat ALL the things!" Which I subsequently did. That's no longer the case now. When I eat something that wasn't planned, I take it and enjoy it without chastizing myself. I just count the calories and move on. I will simply tighten the belt a bit more the next day.

One Step At a Time

I started with a new exercise routine last year (running). Even though there was no diet and accompanying weight loss, I kept it up and enjoyed it. Adding the calorie counting a few weeks ago was a big step, but luckily I didn't have to start the exercise thing too, since it was already in my system.

Progress Pictures

I had never done that before. It helped, actually. Seeing them next to each other last week was interesting. People around me are not noticing the weight loss yet, so I was wondering if there was any change at all in my body shape. Looking at those pictures, I can see there is. It's not massive but it's there.

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So here's hoping I can keep it up this time. I'm feeling fantastic and I don't want to give up that feeling.

Monday, April 28, 2014

Man it was a hectic weekend. I did stay in within my allowed calories AND I got my exercise (lots of bike riding). The main reason for the big number on the scale is the fact that I had my main meal very late yesterday: 8PM, after the kids went to bed. And it was quite a big portion of spaghetti. (No cheese, I don't need those extra kcals...) Result: I feel bloated as fuck. Tie me to a string and call me a balloon. I didn't even finish my fairly small portion of oatmeal this morning. After my bike ride to work I still don't feel hungry at all. My bowels are still working at full capacity to get everything processed. I'm sure a big number 2 is in my near future.

Did I used to eat like this all the time? Because I don't feel too good now. That'll certainly teach me to eat too much late in the evening. Ugh ugh ugh.

Back on the wagon today. I've got my whole day planned out: Healthy snacks, small dinner, evening run. Shitloads of water to get rid of this bloating. Avoid salt. I'm sure this extra weight will be gone by tomorrow.

Update after lunch: I just had a soup (chinese chicken broth). It was yummy but it filled me up so quickly I did not have any of the crackers I brought. Still feeling so stuffed and bloated. I hope this gets better while the day progresses.

Friday, April 25, 2014

Since starting this blog... uhmmm... 9 months ago I finally have some progress pictures to share. At this moment I lost a little over 10lbs so I figure that's a good reason to look at the progress, if any.

Yes you read that right, another loss today. We are at 71.8kg at the moment. *Waits for applause.* This puts me firmly under the pre-pregnancy weight from ZwitsalBaby. 5.8kg to go until I'm at the weight I was before MiniMe and then another 2kg to goal weight. Somewhere in my mind it starts dawning that I might actually be able to do this thing. The scales going down is certainly quite the motivation.

Enough with the blabbering, on with the pics and stats. I blacked out the camera flash from the before pic because it bugged me. At first I thought "Meh... not that much progress." But looking more closely, I think I can see some shrinkage going on. 4.7kg is not an earth shattering large loss either; I have to keep my eyes on the goal. I'm at one third of my lost goal now, so still some way to go.

Thursday, April 24, 2014

This morning the scale read 72.2kg. Hellz yes!!! Ticker going down yet again. That also means I lost 4.3kg since starting my journey last summer. That's a third of the way to my total weight loss goal. Woop woop I'm so excited. I'm going to wait until tomorrow to update the stats though. Maybe I'll even take some progress pictures, if I find the time.

After my scale victory I went down to have my usual breakfast of oatmeal porridge. I packed snacks and lunch for MiniMe and myself, helped her get dressed, gave her breakfast, kissed and cuddled everyone goodbye. When I arrived at work I remembered it was Bike To Work Day, a yearly event where all bicycle commuters get a free breakfast. Totally forgot about it. A whole array of pastries were displayed: Croissants, donuts, eclairs etc etc. I used to love that stuff, so my brain did have an initial reaction like "Ohhhh yummm..." but then I thought twice. One of those things probably contains like 500kcals, it contains no nutrients just butter and sugar. Although it does tastes nice, I was not hungry and I did not need them. I took a black coffee, munched 4 strawberries (luckily they also put out a huge basket of fresh fruit) and before I left I also took a banana and a clementine with me.

I am kinda proud of myself. After all I could've just gone for it. I do allow myself the occasional indulgence. It just didn't tempt me that much. I was also reminded of my indulgence the past weekend and that I actually felt a little sick on Tuesday. Nope, not worth it.

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

I had an excellent day yesterday. I probably went a bit low on the calorie intake, but I figure after the weekend feast, that was OK. It all balances out. And the scales rewarded me with a beautiful loss: 72.7kg! Woot woot! That makes me indeed believe that yesterday's weight was a combination of bloating from the salt and booze of the weekend and the shit that I hadn't evacuated yet.

Anyhoo. Pretty excited that I can have sone (controlled) indulgence during the weekend and get right back on track during the week. That's honestly what I'm aiming for: No all or nothing approach, but something I can keep up for life.

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

I admit it I look up to the celebs that seem to have it all. One of those is Sharika. I loved her from the start: Her singing was OK but I was mostly in love with her dancing. I followed a belly dancing class during a few years at university and she's got that down perfectly.

She had a baby in January of 2013 and showed off her perfect abs in August 2013 already. I know that she has a personal trainer, a personal chef and she has all the money in the world to pay for the perfect child care and blah blah. I still think she's an inspiration. I will not be able to do it quite as fast as her - that ship has sailed - but let's see how close we can get.

So, how did we do this Easter weekend? I weighed in this morning at 73.5kg. I'm totally fine with that. It was a weekend full of temptations. I gave in to some, said no to others. I worked out on Saturday and Sunday and my total calorie count was always OK. The highest was yesterday, at a total of 1684kcal. Considering I didn't work out, I am not surprised to see a small gain.

I was able to resist the easter eggs quite easily, which I'm happy with. It seems that chocolate is slowly losing its grip on me. Phew.

I have to keep in mind that I lost a LOT of weight last week and it's normal to gain some of that back. Plus I did a major number two when I arrived at work, which probably weighed me down as well.

Normally, a few weeks into a new weight loss effort I would totally be losing interest and motivation. Certainly after a small weight gain. Not now though. I'm ready and rearing to go. I've got my workout clothes packed for a lunch workout. All my healthy snacks are sitting on my desk. After a weekend of (controlled) indulgence I am SO ready to go again. Can't wait to see the scales move down again. Woot!!!

Sunday, April 20, 2014

I've had a few nights of eating out in the past few days. First time since my calorie restriction journey, and it was to nights in a row, but I've taken it as it comes.

Friday night Engineer Daddy and I were childless, so we decided on a whim to have dinner on a terras in the sun, It was one of my favourite restaurants in the city that has an amazing salad with feta cheese, bacon bits, fruit and honey mustard dressing. Yes there was feta and bacon, but also an entire mountain of salad and fruit. It came with bread and butter that I ignored. My drink was a diet coke. Good choices, methinks. That evening I had a serious bicycle ride that burned quite a few calories so I burned some of it of rightaway.

Saturday morning weight was up from 72.9 to 73.3. Mmmkay then. I didn't feel too bad about that, since I had a crazy fast weight loss last week anyway. I went on a pre-breakfast run and didn't eat much during the rest of the day since I knew that evening we would be going out to dinner again, for some friends' birthday at a Mexican restaurant. As aperitif I had a margerita that was amazingly delicious. There were tortilla chips and salsa on the table that I ignored. Many people took a second aperitif, but I declined and asked for sparkling water. Then I had a dish with filled jalapenos, rice, some mixed salad, guacamole and some other stuff. There was some cheese and sauces involved, but all in all it wasn't too bad. I didn't get a dessert, just a coffee. We went to a bar afterwards and I had a sparkling water and a coke zero. I think overall it was a win. I'm extremely happy I didn't fall for the booze trap (boozy trap?). I love to get a bit tipsy, but we all know how much calories there are in alcohol and when I am hungover the day after I have to eat all fatty foods to make up for it. This time, I certainly avoided that. Huzzah!

This morning I took a serious dump before my weigh in and the scale read 73.0. So I think the weigh in from saturday was shit weight. Bwahaha. Anyway. Today was an uneventful day, food wise. I basically stayed on track and I went for a run. I added an extra 1.2km to my typical 7km run. Score! I hope I can start doing that more often.

Friday, April 18, 2014

First an update on yesterday: I continued feeling like crap for most of the day. I took something for my headache that gave me some relief, but the fatigue and the sore muscles stayed.

I did make sure to eat more calories, unfortunately I was too exhausted to really prepare something healthy in the evening so I just ate some of the kids' cereal. It was yummy though. Then I had to decide whether or not to go to play badminton. I seriously did NOT feel like it. Hell, even mounting two flights of stairs to put on my workout gear had me catching my breath. But I went anyway, because I was sure I would regret it if I didn't. It was harder than usual, but I played my usual 1.5hours and it was fun. I certainly felt a lot better afterwards. Back home I drank 600ml of water and had 20g of "student mix" (a mix of raisins and nuts) for a total of 90kcals. Yeah!

This morning I woke up quite refreshed. I did my morning pee and did a massive number two, which was SUCH a relief! I had been kinda constipated in the past week, and it seemed like a few days worth of shit finally came out. I think that might have contributed to yesterday's "shitty" feeling as well. I hopped on the scale and KABLAM: 72.9. Another half kilo gone. I shrugged. I can't keep worrying about this fast weight loss anymore. I'm feeling really good today and I'm certainly eating enough calories. It was probably shit weight, literally.

So that puts me nicely under the weight I was before I had my son. Woot! Also my BMI has gone down from 28.1 to 26.8. I think that's fucking fabulous. Still overweight, but definitely on the way down. Woo to the hoo.

Thursday, April 17, 2014

I feel like crap today. Utter crap. It's like having a hangover or something, except I'm not nauseous (thank God). But other than that it really fits the description: Headache, sore muscles, fatigue. Getting out of bed this morning was the hardest thing EVER.

Why is this happening to me? I can think of a few reasons:
1. I haven't been taking in enough calories the past days and my body is protesting.
2. I didn't have any coffee yesterday and these are withdrawal symptoms.
3. I exercised quite vigorously for three days in a row and it's just too much.
4. A combination of the above.

How am I going to fix this?
1. I have brought more snacks with me this morning: An extra piece of fruit and some whole grain cookies that have a supergood taste. They are still low-calorie options, since I am determined NOT to solve this issue by diving face first in a piece of chocolate cake.
2. The ideal solution to this is to cut out the caffeine alltogether. But I can't do that right now. I've only started this calorie restriction so coffee is one of the few pleasures I still have. I'm just going to drink them in moderation (3 cups max each day). Maybe I'll quit coffee sometime in the future, when I've got this weight loss thing in my routine.
3. I still plan to go play badminton today, since it is an organized event and all, but I'm going to take it slow and listen to my body. When it says STOP, I'll stop. Then I am not going to do any exercise for a few days to rest my muscles. I think they need a break.

It's too bad though. I felt so high yesterday when I read 73.5kg on the scale and today I came crashing down. It fucking hurts. That's what you get from too much too soon. This morning the scale said 73.5 again. I was actually happy to NOT see a loss today. 1kg in two days is not healthy, so I'd like my body to just go steady for the next couple days and find its balance.

Right now it's 1PM and I just returned from lunch; I had leftovers from yesterday (cannelloni with spinach yumm-o). I'm feeling a bit better now. Crossing my fingers; I do NOT want to give up on this!

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Hmmm... Another half kilo gone in a day... That's too much, too soon. I guess I'll have to increase my calorie intake, at least on the days that I work out. Hmmm I'm thinking nuts, raisins and high fiber cookies. I'll go by the store later to check that out.

On the bright side I now weigh 73.5kg. That puts me back to my lowest weight of last year AND back at the weight I was pre-ZwitsalBaby. This also means I'm almost 1/4 of the way along to my goal weight.

I must not get too excited now and stay on track. One to two weeks is usually when I start slipping on a diet. On that note, look at the yummy lunch I just prepared:

3 crackers with cottage cheese, topped with pickle slices and spring onion. Total of 278 calories.

I just went through my archives and I laughed at this post. Clearly I have not lost my love for cottage cheese. Unfortunately it's pretty expensive, but I don't care.

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Yesterday I was surfing YouTube again for some videos on diet and weight loss. I stumbled on this BBC documentary called "How to be slim". It focused on finding the best methods to lose weight. Woot! Sounds perfect, so I started watching.

The first couple items were interesting, but nothing I had not heard of before. Then the topic of dairy came up. From what I've read on the internet (because the internet is always right off course), dairy is getting a bad rep. People bashing the stuff and cutting all dairy out of their life. Whut??? Such drastic measures always baffle me.

On the show, they had a guy consuming a dairy-rich diet during one week (mostly low fat dairy products) and the other week he consumed a low dairy diet. Both weeks he consumed more or less the same amount of calories and fat. Then they measured the amount of fat in his feces. This is the icky but fascinating part. During his dairy week, he pooped TWICE the amount of fat than he did in the other week.

TWICE. That's some impressive shit right there.

I have always been mindful to consume enough dairy, because I know us ladies have to remember to keep our bones healthy (osteoporosis, anyone?) and in my experience the easiest source of calcium is still dairy. But I had no idea it could have such a drastic effect on losing fat.

I love me some science and I started researching further. WebMD talks about a study that compared three groups of people with varying dairy intakes and it was clear the high dairy group lost more weight. In addition, they also found that this group lost significantly more body fat.

I'm liking what I'm reading. To put that in practice, this morning I had my usual oatmeal porridge, prepared with semi-skimmed milk. For lunch I packed a 200g jar of cottage cheese and I also have a 125g pot of fat free yoghurt at my disposal for a snack. These are all low calorie food items, but also quite delicious and filling. Apparently they can help me lose some body fat too. I'm excited right now.

So, as you know I've been weighing myself daily now. I try not to put too much value on the number though, I know it can fluctuate for many many reasons.

It showed me that I stayed more or less the same over the weekend, probably because I did consume more calories during those days. And then I hopped on this morning. Half a kilo lost compared to yesterday! Holy Moly.

Is this normal? I guess since it's still the first week my body might still be in shock mode. Like "WTF is happening here with this calorie restriction, y'all???" I'm so happy but also a bit scared. Losing too much too fast can be dangerous; I have to make sure I remain on the straight and narrow. Today I packed a shitload of snacks to keep me from getting hungry. I hope it'll work.

I also had a non scale victory today! I have this pair of pants that I bought in between the two kids. It fit me snugly a few months ago. I put it on this morning and now it fits perfectly, maybe even a little on the loose side. That means I'm definitely losing some inches as well. Yay!

Monday, April 14, 2014

I love looking for diet inspiration on the world wide web and on TV. I wrote a post about a TV show I enjoy a lot some time ago.

Well this weekend I was searching YouTube for some videos on diet and weight loss and I stumbled on a few gems: Two BBC documentaries on extreme dieting. They are called "Super Skinny Me" and "Super Slim Me" (just type these names in the YouTube search bar and you're there). It shows a few female journalists going on crash diets to obtain a size zero figure, resulting in serious physical and mental health problems.

It's pretty clear to see that these kinds of crash diets are a verrrry bad idea. And still... I feel like such a freak admitting this (I would only do it on an anonymous blog and never in real life), but I was intrigued. Who doesn't want to diet with fast results? The thing about crash diets is that their rules are usually very simple; basically you get maximum results with a minimum amount of thinking. No calorie counting, looking for the healthiest options, making sure you get enough protein, calcium blah blah blah.

Ugh... I know this is such a dangerous way of thinking, but these kinds of crash diets will always be just a little bit fascinating to me. I can already (kind of) notice it now while I am counting points. When my daily calorie intake is on the low side and I contemplate having a snack, I have opted to just skip the snack so my calorie count is lower. While having a snack and being closer to my maximum allowed intake of 1500 cals a day would be the more reasonable and healthy thing to do, the fact that I showed restraint gives me a feeling of pride.

I need to cut that shit out. Next time I will HAVE the snack, this is a promise to myself.

The weekend has gone by and I admit I am kinda proud of myself. I wasn't as diligent as I was during the week, but I made good choices and managed to stay within my maximum intake (Saturday 1510, Sunday 1580). I am so happy about it, because I want to allow myself to still enjoy some things, which I certainly did. But no more weekend bingeing that used to make me feel sad and bloated.

Weight wise it's also been going well. 5 days in and a 0.7kg loss. I am weighing myself daily now, thanks to the scale I got for Christmas. This is mostly for logging purposes, because I'm really interested to make some graphs in a few weeks to see how my weight reacts to certain amounts of calories and exercise. I'm not going to post new stats more often than weekly though.

My mood has not been too bad. On Friday I did have a hard time at work. I was really hungry during the morning and then 1.5 hours after lunch I had a total sugar crash. Not fun. Today I took some extra snacks (fruit) with me to avoid that. Let's see how it goes.

Friday, April 11, 2014

Sooo... I'm back again. I have no idea why I stopped posting. All I know is I'm back again, ready to roll.

Life's been good. MiniMe is doing great at school and growing up so fast my head is spinning. ZwitsalBaby's lungs are completely better now. The only real ailment that's still bothering him is eczema, which we are keeping under control with a moisturizing cream. He started walking at the end of January, which he is clearly loving. With the weather improving in our area, they are enjoying playing outside together; they are becoming more independent and frankly, I'm loving it.

On the exercise front I have been able to keep up the momentum. I'm still running my 7km twice a week. In december I finished my first run: 8K! I did it in 51mins, not too shabby if I say so myself. Below is a picture to prove I'm not lying. I'm the second one from the left, my father is the guy next to me. We ran the whole thing together and I had a lot of fun. There is something exciting about runs like these. The anticipation in the group before the starting signal, the wild outfits (this was during the end-of year holidays, so lots of Santa Claus hats, reindeer antlers and such), listening in on other runners' conversations. Definitely something I'll be doing again.

I'm also still playing badminton weekly and going to work by bicycle. In other words: Same old, same old.

On the eating front: Blech. Well, honestly it could have been worse, but it certainly wasn't great either. My main weaknesses, as always, have been potato chips and booze.

Weight wise I was holding on to my weight loss until December. then over the holidays it completely went to shit. I did have a lot of fun though, so I'm actually not feeling too much guilt. Own up to it and move along. Right now I'm at 74.9kg. New stats update and ticker below.

As far as food intake goes, I'm in a complete slump; I'm so over those fracking WW points. I need to shake things up with a fresh approach, so I decided to go with good old fashioned calorie counting. The nice thing about this is there are so many on-line resources out there, making it easy to look up anything, including calories burned from exercise. I'm logging everything right now in a spreadsheet: Weight, calories in, calories out and water intake. I am shooting for an intake of 1200-1500 calories a day. I'm not sure if I will take the exercise calories into account as well, i.e "eating" my exercise calories. At this point I'm not, but let's see how the first weeks go and maybe I will start doing that at some point if I notice my energy levels are problematic.

I'm making a commitment to myself to blog about the calorie counting as often as possible. Because I want to log not only the numbers but also how I'm feeling. From everything I've read online - and that's a LOT - I have realized that all of our bodies respond differently to certain diets. It's important to find out what works FOR YOU, physically and emotionally. So these first few weeks are going to be experimental. I'm going to try to stay on track as well as possible and then make some graphs to see the fluctuations in weight, energy levels, mood etc. I lurves me some graphs.